Peaceful Moments
by FortuneDP
Summary: Gradually, he started to warm up to her. The very thought of it horrified him, but he didn't really care too much. She didn't either, it seemed.
1. Chapter 1

Peaceful Moments

Chapter One

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

The young, blue-haired girl shivered under her light blanket. The fierce wind blew in from the mouth of the cave, making the flames of the fire flicker wildly. One of the other occupants of the cave was already asleep. The other was sitting by the fire, presumably keeping watch.

The one who was still awake turned towards the girl, the fire seemingly imbibed within his orange hair. Sighing, he moved over to her side. The girl was turned away from him, and the boy slipped down behind her unnoticed.

The girl took a sharp breath when two hands gently encircled her waist and brought her close to a warm body.

"Yahiko?" she trembled.

The boy, Yahiko, blushed slightly, but quickly brushed it off and scowled.

"You looked cold," he muttered. "Are you still cold now?"

The girl's eyes were widened.

"No," she breathed, reveling in the warmth of another body.

"Good," said the boy, trying to roll his eyes in what he hoped was an annoyed manner. "I don't want you to freeze to death."

There was no response.

"Konan?"

The girl did not move.

"Oh, come on," whispered Yahiko frantically. "I was joking!"

Then, he noticed her even, calm breathing and closed eyelids.

"Oh…" he said, slightly stupefied by the fact that she had fallen asleep in about two seconds. _In my arms_, he though rather uncomfortably…

In the morning, no sun rose to greet the population of Amegakure. Only the relentless, pounding rain shook the people awake.

Within the cave they called home, the Ame Orphans slowly woke up, one-by-one. Yahiko was the first; he started and shook his head wildly, before realizing the slightly awkward position he was in from the night before.

Gulping, he quickly slid his arms away from Konan and fled back to his spot near the dwindling fire.

His sudden movement nudged Konan awake next. Her eyes twitched slightly before opening, revealing the deep amber color of her irises.

Yahiko nervously glanced in her direction and saw her wide eyes staring at him. Heat rushed to his face as he quickly averted her gaze.

Finally, the third member of their little group, Nagato, awoke as well, his red hair covering his eyes completely.

"So," said Yahiko cheerfully, seizing on the opportunity to ease the situation, "did you sleep well, Nagato?"

"Yeah…"

Nagato looked at Yahiko with his purple eyes, slightly suspicious of the boy's behavior. He wasn't usually this cheery in the morning…

Later that day, after nightfall, although it was hard to tell when that was with the constant cloud cover pouring rain down, a fire once again crackled within the Ame Orphan's little cave.

Once again, Nagato was dozing, Yahiko was sitting, and Konan was shivering. A cold gust of air blew into the cave, bringing with it a few stinging drops of rain that splattered onto some of Konan's precious origami creations.

"No!" she cried, getting up and running over to them. Quickly, she gathered all of her paper and origami up to stash in a safe, dry spot away from the horrible rain.

"Relax," said Yahiko, rolling his eyes. "You make so many that you'll probably end up remaking all of them again tomorrow."

Konan turned to him, glaring with eyes filled with tears.

_Oh, now this is a good situation to be in_, gulped Yahiko.

"What did you say?" whispered Konan lethally. Her hair blew wildly in the wind, her neat bun coming undone as the origami rose she wore in her hair dissolved into sheets of blue paper.

"Nothing!" said Yahiko hastily. "Nothing, nothing at all!"

Figuring he might as well try to calm the seething girl down, he offered his precious seat by the fire to her tiny creations.

Konan's eyes immediately dried as she grabbed all of her things and plopped them neatly by the fire, making sure that they were close enough to dry quickly but not close enough to become ashes.

"Thanks, Yahiko," Konan said sweetly, going back to her blanket.

Grumbling, Yahiko sat across from the origami.

"Guys, please be quiet," muttered the supposedly asleep Nagato.

Konan giggled and Yahiko spared a strained smile, still thinking about his near-death situation that he had just escaped.

"You know," whispered Yahiko, starting a conversation with the origami across from him, "I don't get why she's so desperate to keep all of you. I mean, she's got hundreds of you now!"

He did have a point; her neatly lined origami was numerous enough to make a small army. Arranged by color and then complexity, her origami created a rainbow that flickered wildly with the fire.

"A bridge to peace…" muttered Yahiko, staring at the rainbow of origami. "That's what I want. Is that what you want too?"

"Yeah…"

"I know, right? A rainbow… like you guys… a seven-colored bridge to peace. I hope that I can make it happen."

"We do too."

"Yeah… that would be nice."

"We think so too."

Yahiko sighed.

"Look at me… talking to origami… and the origami is talking back too."

After registering what he had just said himself, which took the good portion of ten minutes, he snapped up to stare blankly at the origami.

"What?" he said hoarsely. "Have you been talking?"

A fit of giggles quietly erupted from a certain mound on the cave floor, covered in a blanket.

Yahiko glared at it.

"That was not funny!" he said, almost yelling as he marched over to the mound and plucked the blanket off of a laughing Konan, even while breaking into laughter himself.

"Shh," whispered Konan through her giggles. "You'll wake Nagato!"

"I'll make you laugh, all right," said Yahiko viciously, launching himself at the girl quietly while dissolving into a fit of laughter.

Of course, Yahiko had no idea what had happened the next morning when he found Konan within his arms for the second night in a row.


	2. Chapter 2

Peaceful Moments

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Yahiko secretly watched in fascination as Konan quickly manipulated the paper in her hands. Completely focused on the paper, Konan failed to notice Yahiko staring at her. Soon, a rose bloomed from the girl's palms, an orange rose to add to the collection of flowers she had already made that drizzly day.

It had seemed more dismal than usual on that day when the Ame Orphans ate dinner. Their plentiful supply of food was generally supplied by the unfortunate civilians of Amegakure. Yet even as they lived a life possibly more filling stomach-wise than all of the rest of the general population of Amegakure, they all ate in silence and the rain continued to pound.

That was why Nagato and Konan listened even more attentively than they had before when Yahiko shared his dream again, as he had many other times before.

"This war… it's awful," said Yahiko, somehow making the statement repeated many times before just as interesting as the first time. "One day, I'm gonna rule the world! I'm gonna become the god of this world so there won't be any more war or fighting, and there'll be true peace. One day, there'll be true peace in the world. And I'll be the one to change the world into that."

He droned on for the rest of their dinner, the other two still listening, enraptured. Finally, when their dinner ended, the three orphans left to their own little niche in the cave. Once again, Konan gently picked up a leaf of paper and began to make another flower, and, once again, Yahiko watched her intently. She evidently had not noticed that she was missing a sheet of red paper.

The soft crinkle of paper as it was folded was drowned out by the large, crackling flame that flickered softly, providing a large amount of light to the small cave. Again, another rose was born from Konan's palms, and Yahiko stared down at the creation he had made as he attempted to follow along with Konan's speed. It looked rather like a crinkled, red boulder. Sighing, he discreetly threw it into the fire, where it almost immediately burst into flame.

Konan, unnoticing of the sudden burst of heat and light, continued to fold more roses. Yahiko gulped slightly and promised to himself that he would try again tomorrow.

Of course, when that time came, he once again had a piece of red paper in his hands. When Konan was outside, he quickly passed by her bed and slipped a sheet of red paper out of the stack of origami paper that Konan had. She came back soon and began to fold again, smiling as she hummed a little tune.

Yahiko found that it was a little bit easier this time; he remembered the first few steps from last night. Of course, that didn't mean it looked like a rose. It still resembled the squashed boulder that had been formed the night before. Frustrated, he threw the paper into the fire again, where it caught fire and smoldered.

This pattern continued for a few weeks, until Konan finally realized that her supply of colorful paper was dwindling in the red section much faster than any of her other colors. Yahiko almost managed to make the flower the day before, and he was desperate for one last chance.

Once again, when Konan left, he sneaked to her bed and was about to grab a sheet of red paper; unfortunately, Konan chose that moment to start walking back in. Yahiko gulped as he heard the steps and quickly grabbed a sheet, fleeing back to his bed at a speed that could rival any ninja.

She did not seem to notice.

Yahiko breathed a sigh of relief, but then was horrorstruck as he stared at the blue piece of paper he was holding. _Blue!_

Cursing silently, he folded the paper anyways. After much painful, diligent struggling, the paper took on a form similar to one of Konan's roses. Smiling in triumph, he was prepared to present his masterpiece to Konan, until he realized that she would probably annihilate him when she found out that he had been stealing her origami paper. Gulping, he hid the paper rose in his spot and resolved to get Konan more red paper.

The next morning, Yahiko woke Nagato and Konan eagerly.

"Alright, we're going to get some food!" he said excitedly.

"Again?" muttered Konan sleepily, as she got up, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"What do you mean again?" pouted Yahiko.

"Well… We do have a lot of food," pointed out Nagato calmly, waving his hand at the numerous boxes around them. "I don't know if we need more…"

"Fine!" glared Yahiko. "I'll go by myself!"

"Wait, Yahiko –"

"Don't you dare come after me!" said Yahiko. "You guys should stay here!"

The two other orphans shrugged at Yahiko's behavior, before going about their normal routines.

About two hours later, Yahiko reappeared, looking defeated.

"Well?" prompted the other two.

Yahiko simply shook his head, before slouching off to his bed.

"I'm doomed," he muttered, whimpering slightly. "No paper… stupid market people."

Konan really did not mind that he had taken her paper. True, she did angrily whack him around the head a few times for not telling her, but after that, she was her usual self – until she proposed her solution to her paper stock dwindling.

"I'll ignore you until you get me more red paper!" she told Yahiko cheerfully one rainy morning. "Starting today!"

And with those last words, she abruptly turned and began to chat amiably with a laughing Nagato, leaving Yahiko to moan in despair over where to find the paper he so desperately needed.


End file.
